>Message across the sea<

A dream that sent a ship on a life-saving mission

The captian of a ship crossing the Atlantic to Newfoundland in 1828, glanced through the door of a cabin adjoining his own and saw a man standing in the shadows. He had never seen him before.
He was not one of the crew, and no passenger were being carried on that voyage. Certain that he had trapped a stowaway, the captain burst into the cabin, but as he did so, the figure disappeared from sight.
All the evidence that remained was a scrawled message on the cabin wall: 'Steer to the north-west'.
The captain was considerably shaken, but at the same time, so impressed by the stranger's message thet he altered course according to the scribbled instructions.
After a few hours, his vessel came across a foundering ship. The only person aboard was the man whom the captain had encountered in the cabin of his own ship.
He said that he had just awoken from a deep sleep during which he had dreamt that he was about to be rescued.